


A Moment's Peace

by PowerfulLight



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Not a whole lot of plot, One-Shot, Post TLJ, Post-Crait, Rey is sad as hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 01:55:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20037982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PowerfulLight/pseuds/PowerfulLight
Summary: A week after the Battle of Crait, the Force briefly connects Rey and Kylo Ren once again.





	A Moment's Peace

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all! This is my first time posting anything on Ao3! I originally posted a slightly different version of this on my Tumblr. It's pretty rough and short but I had fun writing these sad space babies! Thanks for tuning in!

_This is going to hurt, _Rey thinks as the connection between them crackles to life.

She has had that thought regarding Kylo Ren twice, and both times she had been right. The first time was on Starkiller Base, when Luke's lightsaber had come to her, defying any birthright, and she had ignited it against his own crackling blade.

The second time was in the smouldering red of the Supremacy, the smell of scorched flesh still tainting the air, and an outstretched hand and eyes, soft with an impossible hope.

It had seemed so simple across the fire on Ach-To.

She would come to him and he would turn. Ben Solo would be saved and would save the Resistance in the process.

It would be how they won. She had been so sure.

Rey hoped that not everything she would be sure about in life would turn to ashes between her fingers.

As he stared up at the corpse of his master it was as if Ben slipped back through the fog, back into Kylo Ren. Maybe Ben Solo had only ever been a trick of the light.

“I thought this would be over, with Snoke gone.” Kylo's voice is deep and steady. It's only been a week since Crait, since she had been able to grasp onto whatever this connection is and slam it in his face. He wears the same heavy, black clothes she's come to expect from him. His cloak brushes his ankles. No golden robes for this Supreme Leader, it would seem. When she doesn’t acknowledge his statement he sighs, “Tell me where the rebels are hiding.”

Rey can’t stop the surprised rise of her brow. Before she can say anything he continues. “I didn't expect it to work. It seems foolish to not try and make use of this time in some productive way.”

He looks above her but if he sees her surroundings, the inside of the captains quarters of the Millenium Falcon, he doesn't show it. She can still only see him and she takes a moment to really look.

He radiates a warmth that directly contrasts his sullen appearance. Sweat sticks a few pieces of hair to his forehead. What must be a breeze rustles his hair ever so slightly and his eyes are squinted, as if he's facing the sun. Rey realises that he probably is. The Resistance has been scouring the Outer Rim for allies all week. It's the longest Rey has ever gone without the sun on her skin and, for a moment, she envies him.

“Where are you?” She asks before she can stop herself.

His eyes flick down to her own. “Do you expect me to tell you?”

“We're both entitled to our hopeless questions.”

Something like a smirk flashes across his face. Rey feels as though she's been punched in the stomach and finds herself wishing for a moment that he still had the mask. Because then she wouldn't have to see Han's smirk flick across his face. She wonders if he even realises that not all of his father disappeared as he fell down, down on Starkiller. She wonders if it even matters now.

They avoid each other’s eyes in silence. She doesn't know how much time passes.

“Would it have been so awful?” He asks her in a voice that is painful, because it is equal parts Ben and Kylo and when he is like this she finds it impossible to reason with that small part of her heart that is as torn as the lightsaber in her dresser drawer.

“My friends were dying.” She tries to keep her voice even. “The only people I have. Finn, your mother.”

“Were they really the only people you had? Truly?”

She feels his pain, his loneliness.

She has a reoccurring dream now, she’s in the cave of mirrors on Ach-To but instead of herself, her feelings reflecting back a hundred times over, it is Ben. When she wakes her eyes are always wet and her mouth open, as if she’s calling out. Thinking about it does her no good.

She can't bring herself to lie, doesn't even know if she could with the bond. Still, her response comes hot and clipped. “No.”

“You must hate me now.” He’s no longer avoiding her gaze. Now he stares at her as he did on the _Supremacy_, here again to bring harsh truths. “It would be wise for you to hate me.”

There are things, Rey finds, now that she has actual people to talk to, that are nearly impossible to say. She would be crushed under the weight of the words and would crumble like Takodana, Starkiller, the _Supremacy_, and all things that are unfortunate enough to get caught between the two of them.

She is lucky, in this regard, that the Force has given her other ways to communicate with him.

_Do I hate you? _She opens her mind to him, allows him to see for himself. His eyes go wide as he takes in what she offers him.

Does she hate him? Not in the way she should.

She hates how he can end the war at any moment, yet refuses to. She hates that he gave up on himself so quickly. That he tried to drag her down with him, even if he saw it as lifting her up.

And she loves him too. Loves that he laid his soul bare in that hut on Ach-To, to comfort her, to show her that she wasn’t alone. Loved the feel of him against her back as they tore through Snoke’s guards. Loves the look he gave her as the last guard fell, like she was his saviour in all ways.

He can feel her hate and her love, and how little separates the two. It's both the coldness of the space she now floats through and the heat of Jakku. He shouldn't of expected anything more of a girl who only knows extremes.

“_Rey_.” He whispers her name like it’s a prayer and comes to his knees in front of her. Do her feelings hit him hard, where he’s weakest? Do they hit him where they hit her?She can look into his eyes now. Ben Solo stares back, but for how long? Silent tears track her cheeks. Slowly, he peels his glove off of one hand and brings it to her face, to cup her cheek and wipe some of her wetness away.

And with his touch comes the same clarity, the same sense of peace. They bask in their precious seconds, knowing they will be few and far between. They could not beg the Force for more time.

_That’s not how the Force works, anyway._

This moment will be over soon, she knows. The bond will sever again and she will be alone on the _Falcon_ and he will be on his knees wherever he is, clutching open air. The next time they see each other may be in the flesh. He may have to take her life for his cause. Just as she may have to take his, what he hasn’t taken already.

_This is going to hurt, _Rey thinks, as she turns her face to press a kiss into his palm.

She is, of course, right.


End file.
